Finishing Up 2016

Wow - look at how time has flown! It seems like Thanksgiving was last week and here it is a few days after Christmas. Next thing you know we will be watching folks in their 2017 glasses in Times Square!

These Maineiacs have been crazy busy these past few weeks. Getting the house decorated for Christmas, obtaining the presents, mailing some presents, wrapping some presents, getting ready for houseguests --- you know --- the normal Christmas routine.

There are lots of things that qualify for the "normal" Christmas routine these days. Like getting all cold and dirty putting new brakes on my truck. Why is it that stuff on vehicles in the frozen north always wait until winter to need fixing? Or like taking the family to the latest Star Wars movie on the day after Christmas. How did that become a Christmas tradition? Regardless of all the "stuff" that has been keeping us busy these last few weeks it has been great having all the kids and grandkids around the last few days. Nothing says Christmas like family enjoying each others' company.

You may recall that I have managed to accomplish a motorcycle restoration during the cold months of the last few years. Two years ago it was the 1965 Yamaha YA-6.

Last year it was the 1974 Honda CB350F.

This year I decided to see what I could do with the 1977 Jawa Moped. It's not really a motorcycle ... but what the heck ... even mopeds deserve a little love. It took me about 2 hours to completely strip the frame of all its component parts to start the cleaning process and then I made the decision to go ahead and make this a true restoration with a new paint job and all. Thanks again to my "Paint Guy" Glenn Babb for a high quality paint job on all these small pieces. I still have a few pieces to install - but the project is pretty much ready to put away until spring.

We have a few more days left to visit with the NJ Gang before they head home and then I reckon it will be time to start undoing and re-storing all the Christmas decorations and then moving on to getting WTT ready to roll. I checked on Winne a few days ago and she is looking pretty forlorn with her tire covers on and a few inches of ice/snow on her roof. I figure we have about 16 days and A-Wake-Up before we plan on heading south. I also figure we will have at least 4 more snow storms before then so the trick is planning when to clean off the roof and awaken WTT for her trip over to the house for final loading and trip preparations. I don't want to do it too early or I'll end up having to accomplish more snow removal in my driveway which is harder to perform ... but I would like to have WTT here at home at least a few days for loading and final checkouts. Ahh ... the joys of escaping the winter in the middle of winter!

Here's hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas and our best wishes for great things for you all in 2017.

"Oh ... the Weather Outside is Frightful"

Well it appears winter has arrived in Maine. We received our first stick-on-the-ground snowfall a couple days ago and although it only piled up to an inch or so -- it was enough to beautify the landscape and cause some slippery roads. We are receiving a few more flurries this morning as I write this -- so I reckon "it" is here.

I made the mistake of looking at the 10 day forecast this morning and see where the lows are going into the single digits next week. Apparently a white Christmas is in order this year.

The first snowfall reminded me to take a look at the calendar. 36 days and a-wake-up before we head south. Time to start thinking of all the things we need to get done before we leave. Who am I kidding - nobody reading this I'm sure! I've been getting ready for weeks now! WTT is mostly ready - all we need to do is air up the tires, load a few things, and hope the snow doesn't pile up too deep over the next 36 days! We have left in the "middle" of winter for many years in a row now so we pretty much know what needs to be done. On the other hand ... we haven't traveled in the cold weather in WTT before so I'm sure we have more than just a few things to learn about keeping us warm for the first few days as we head towards warmer weather.

Our present plans are to head to St.Augustine, FL during that first week - maybe down I-95 ... maybe down I-81 and then over to I-95. We will let the weather and our mood at the time inform us on the route. After spending a few days in the St. Augustine area we will make our way further south to Bushnell (a bit south of Ocala) where we will settle in for several weeks. We don't have a scheduled itinerary for our time in Bushnell ... but we hope to enjoy some warm (warmer than Maine for sure) weather and I'm sure there will be several day trips within a 100 miles or so to keep us busy.

Come mid-March we plan on heading a bit north and a bit west over to Summerdale, AL to visit friends at the Rainbow Plantation RV Park and a few of our favorite local restaurants before we start winding our way back north and east towards springtime in Maine.

But before all that happens we are looking forward to a Merry Christmas season here at home. Visits with family and friends, some good holiday cheer, and yes ... some quality time with my snowblower and snow shovel!

Ya'll stay warm now! ---- and Remember Pearl Harbor.

What's Next?

These Maineiacs are continuing to enjoy fall here in the great State of Maine. We were fortunate to have the NJ Gang here for a few days last week and enjoyed our short visit. Since all the kids/grandkids were in the area we took advantage of the rare occasion and hosted an early Thanksgiving day feast here at our house.  You just can't beat a turkey feast with all the trimmings complete with homemade apple pie ... and all the fun that goes with having family just being themselves.

I also found time to complete the Honda restoration projects I had on the list. As I did earlier with the rear wheel, I completed the restoration of the front wheel with a new rim, spokes, and tire and then moved on to disassembling the speedometer and tachometer to replace the sun faded/crazed gauge faces with new vinyl faces. they came out pretty nice if I do say so myself.

Also on the list was designing and constructing a solar powered battery charging system for WTT. The spot where I store Winne does not have "shore power" available and the batteries tend to lose capacity over time while in storage. Since I really didn't want to remove the 6 large batteries and bring them home for charging like I used to do with the original Winne -- a new solution was required.

After doing some on-line shopping I opted to purchase a small 50 Watt solar panel and charge controller made by Renogy through Amazon.com. I made a stand for the panel using some aluminum stock purchased from the local Home Depot and made up the necessary wiring harness.

After doing some testing here at home to make sure it all worked like I hoped - I took it over to Winne's storage spot yesterday morning and completed the installation. Lo and Behold it worked just as planned! Even with the low sun angle we have here in the northeast (especially this late in the year!) I was able to obtain the full output of the panel (about 3 Amps) and the batteries began charging right off the bat. I'll check it frequently over the next few days to make sure it continues to work OK ... but for now I'm claiming success!

The leaves are just about all off the local trees so it looks like I am mostly done with the annual leaf removal chore. My new (to me) Yard Tractor really made that chore much easier this year. With that task behind me it was time to get the Honda put in storage and the Yard Tractor into its winter home in the shed. I have a few more small tasks to accomplish before the snow flies -- but the Maineiacs in Motion Maine Mansion is pretty much ready for what winter has to offer.

And with not much time to spare. I see our friends down south have already received their first snowflakes -- and I note that there are no days with high temps forecast above 50 degrees for the foreseeable future around here. So it must be time to roast a turkey, smoke another turkey, make another apple pie, and have another Thanksgiving Day feast .... before we move on to getting those Christmas lights up, decorate the Christmas Tree, and deck a few halls with boughs of holly.

53 days and a-wake-up ... but who's counting!

It is Done

It is done.

No ... not in the Biblical sense ... In the voting booth sense. 

Peggy and I made the drive over to our local polling place, stated who we are and where we live (nobody bothered to check if we were telling the truth by the way), and in a few moments there I was, face-to-face with "the Presidential decision." Do I vote "for" a person who I have no idea what (s)he believes, or do I vote against a person who I don't want within 10 miles of a position of authority? In the end I made my decision and my vote will be counted - at least I hope it will.

With the Presidential decision out of the way the rest of the ballot was pretty easy to fill in. Vote for persons who say they are for limiting government to only those things absolutely necessary, against all the referendum questions seeking to dole out social and economic justice outside of the normal government process, and then for a bond issue to fix our failing infrastructure. I would rather fund those repairs on a pay-as-you-go basis ... but alas ... we have no money in the coffers after paying for the previous attempts to provide social and economic justice to the masses.

Ho Hum ... another election cycle will soon be over. Or will it? 

I know a couple of things for sure. Someone later tonight will make a plea for bipartisan cooperation going forward. And I will laugh.

With that out of the way I can now look forward to all the political signs disappearing from the highways, a return to what passes as normalcy on television, and visits with kids and grandkids over the holidays.

We are looking forward to seeing Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily (AKA the NJ Gang) later this week for a few days of pre-Thanksgiving fun and feasting, followed by an overnight visit from Miss Taylor and her wonderdog Tut next Sunday while her parents travel to lovely Foxboro, MA to watch the New England Patriots battle those pesky Seahawks from Seattle. 

With those festivities out of the way we will rest up for some "real" Thanksgiving fun, feasting, and football the following week.

In the meantime ... we will continue the battle against the leaves while awaiting the onset of winter. 

It's November in Maine ... it's what we do! 

More Maineiac Musings

Here we are - almost at Halloween. The days are getting shorter and colder, the leaves are in full flight to the earth, and the weatherman on TV is mentioning that sn*w word. 

My Yard Tractor and I have been busy mowing leaves every few days. So far I am pretty happy with the ability of the YT to suck up/chop up the leaves and deposit them into the bagger hanging off the back. I still have to periodically stop and dump the two mesh bagger bags into a larger plastic bag for hauling off to the town's recycling center where they turn the leaves into compost ... but overall the task is much easier than blowing/raking all the leaves into piles (always on a windy day) and then picking them up to push into those same plastic bags. I'm sure I am harming the environment more by burning all that gasoline ... but I'm over it now ... and it didn't take all that long.

In between gathering of leaves I have continued my other winterizing chores. WTT did get her annual service a few weeks ago at the local Freightliner Chassis shop where they changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filters, and lubed the chassis. They also installed that Fumoto Drain Valve I spoke of last entry which will make it easier to do the task myself in the future. WTT is now back in her storage spot resting up for her winter excursion to the southland. I'll be visiting her every few weeks to check on things and run the generator/charge the batteries.

I also got the Chevelle and the Yamaha put into their winter storage spots. Peggy's car now gets to reside in the garage for a few months and I'm trying to make room in the shed for the YT to be stored once leaf mowing season is over. I still have the Honda CB350F in the shed because I'm not done restoring it. When I did the restoration work last year and this spring I left a couple of projects for "later" and I guess "later" has arrived.

Before winter fully sets in I want to replace the wheels, spokes, and tires on the Honda and restore the gauge faces on the speedometer/tachometer. Last week I removed the rear tire/wheel from the bike, removed the tire which was old, dried out and cracked in a couple of places, removed all the spokes and the chrome wheel itself -- leaving the rear aluminum brake hub. I polished up the hub, re-spoked a new chrome rim with new spokes, trued the wheel (a process where you tighten the spokes and get the wheel turning with no wobbles), and installed a new tube and tire.

Before

After

One down -- one to go.

If it's almost Halloween ... then it's time for really creepy creatures and scary times ahead. Hmmm ... that reminds me ... election day is only a dozen days ahead. Those that know me -- know that I have zero enthusiasm for any of the major party candidates for President. In fact, I find myself with no candidate I can vote for. This will be my 12th time voting for President and I've never been in this situation before! There have been many elections where I voted for a person with no enthusiasm, but never where I just couldn't gather the strength to endorse (with my vote) any candidate. I suppose I could gather that strength over the next 12 days ... but it will take drugs.

OK -- enough negative energy ....

Time to put on more layers and go out and mow some more leaves.

77 and A-Wake-Up.

Contemplating the Calendar

Here we are again. The weather in Maine has been pretty nice up to now but it has turned rather cold and wet today. The colorful foliage is out in full splendor and those various shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown and beginning to collect on my lawn. The short pants are put away for awhile and the long pants and sweatshirts are the uniform-of-the-day for the time being.

I have made good progress on completing my fall chores these past few weeks. WTT has been cleaned, waxed, and winterized. The Fusion has had its oil change and wax job. The Chevelle has been prepared for storage. And the house exterior has received a bit of touch up paint in preparation for surviving winter. I still have plenty to do before the serious weather arrives ... but I still have plenty of time to get it accomplished.

Or do I? The long range weather forecasters are pretty unanimous in predicting a long, cold, and snowy winter for the northeast this year so maybe I better not get too excited about being ahead of schedule!

Although Winne is presently sitting in her storage location I need to get her oil changed next week before she is officially in "winter storage." I have been arguing with myself for a few months about how and when to have this first service performed. Based on her build date Winne is just over a year old and has accumulated about 6,500 miles. I could crawl underneath and change the oil myself, I could have it done at a local shop that works on trucks/RVs, I could have it done about 40 miles away at a Freightliner Service Center, I could have it done at the Freightliner Custom Chassis Manufacturing Facility in Gafney, SC on our way south in a few months, or I could put it off until I get home in the spring. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Final answer ... get it done this next week at the Freightliner Service Center in Westbrook, ME and then I don't have to deal with it for another year! And while they're at it ... I'll have them add a Fumoto drain valve on the oil pan to make it easier for me to do in the future.

Speaking of heading south in a few months ... we now have a preliminary plan. Actually, as has been proven in the past -- all our plans are "preliminary." The plan is to shovel and blow snow here in Maine until about a week before our new President is sworn in, take a week or so to travel down to around St. Augustine, FL (it appears some of it is still standing after Hurricane Mathew blew by), 

goof off in that area for a week or so and then land in central Florida (Bushnell) for a couple of weeks of rest and relaxation in (hopefully) the sun. 

Sometime around Valentine's Day we will venture further south checking out spots in southwestern Florida before heading back to Bushnell for a few more weeks starting around Fat Tuesday. 

Once we make it to the change over to Daylight Savings Time it will be time to start drifting back to the northeast. As is usual that time of year, we don't want to get too far north too soon ... but we do plan on being home around April Fools Day.

But then again ... if it gets too cold ... and/or too snowy ... too early ... I'm all for spending New Years Day in the warmth of the sun.

2 If By Sea

September has continued to march on. More and more leaves have started their annual color-fest, the daylight hours are getting noticeably shorter, and the evening temperatures are getting a bit chilly. We even had to turn the furnace on in the mornings a few days last week!

Before I get started ... I must provide a big Thank You to my sister Marcie who provided a couple of beautiful quilts to help make WTT home. Pretty snazzy dontcha think!?

September is also another birthday month for us. Miss Taylor turned Five a few weeks ago 

and Miss Peggy had another birthday yesterday herself. She probably won't like me to advertise her age, although I don't know why ... she is the best looking Sexty Six a girl could ever ask for. Since I've known her since before she was 16 I am uniquely qualified to judge that the last 50 have been a great 50! Happy Birthday Darlin'.

We took a few days off from our busy schedule and headed down to Massachusetts to get in a little revolutionary war touristing, wander around an "vintage" motorcycle swap meet, and generally goof off while testing WTT some more.

We drove down to Littleton, MA on Friday the 9th and settled in at the Minuteman RV Resort. For as close as Minuteman is to Boston it really is a pretty nice RV Park. The sites are pretty large and the roadways were easy enough to navigate. Minuteman is in the middle of a pine grove so satellite TV was out of the question but the shade was nice! I was expecting a somewhat noisy weekend being that close to Boston but the campground was pretty quiet in spite of being pretty full.

We spent several hours on Saturday visiting the nearby Minute Man National Historical Park. The park stretches along about 5 miles of the North Great Road (paralleling Route 2A) between Lexington, MA and Concord, MA -- about 13 miles west of downtown Boston. The Park commemorates and preserves the story of Paul Revere's ride, the British firing on Colonials on Lexington Green, the Colonial stand at the North Bridge over the Concord River, and the bloody retreat of the British back to Boston. All this happened on April 19, 1775 in less than 24 hours.

Why did it happen at all? It seems that the British were sick and tired of the upstart Colonials resisting their authoritarian rule and ever increasing taxes and found out that they were caching weapons and ammunition in and around Concord. Having none of that ... they decided to send 1700 of His Majesty's Regular Army out of Boston on April 19th, across the Charles River by boats ("Two if by sea") and then on foot/horse to Concord to seize/destroy the weapons/ammunition cache.

But the Colonials were ready. Paul Revere and a couple of friends found out about the British plans and took off out of Boston to warn the Colonial Militia (Minute Men) who then gathered up their muskets and decided to greet the British Regulars with their own "show of force." After walking about 10 miles in the early dark hours of the morning the British were greeted by a group of 77 Colonials on Lexington Green in the center of town around dawn. The British fire a volley - 8 colonials die - the remainder scatter - and the British continue on towards Concord. 

Curious George was visiting with us so he could tell Miss Taylor and Miss Sophie all about it!

A few hours later a group of British Regulars arrive at the North Bridge over the Concord River and are confronted by a few hundred Colonial Militia. One thing leads to another -- and then the unthinkable happens -- the Colonials fire back! (the Shot Heard Round The World). It was the British turn to run - and they did for awhile before regrouping for the march back along the road to Boston. The real fighting happened on that march back! The British made it back to Charlestown around sunset that night having lost 73 soldiers with another 174 wounded. The Colonials fared a bit better having lost 49 men with 41 wounded. The war was started ... and we all know the rest of the story. Or do we?

Peggy and I visited the North Bridge, walked a bit on the North Great Road, and checked out the Visitors Centers at both ends of the Park. Another fun day immersed in our nations history.

On Sunday we drove over to the motorcycle swap meet - walked until I couldn't walk any longer - looked at all the treasures - bought nothing - and returned to the rig to relax and watch football. Well I did anyway. Peggy just relaxed.

We spent last week recovering from our short trip, visiting with the Maine Gang, and doing a little work to get WTT ready for a few months storage. 

It is Autumn you know!

Autumn In Maine

Wow - somehow it has become September. And with September comes Autumn in Maine. Our overnight low temperatures are now in the 50s and the daytime highs might make it to 80 on a warm day. Crisp mornings and even a few red leaves on the maples -- my favorite time of year! Since Autumn has arrived in Maine (forget what the calendar says!! In Maine it's Autumn!) - I have started my Fall chores. Time to clean the rain gutters and find the rake.  Those pretty red leaves will be on the ground before you know it!

And of course with September comes the start of the school year. Our "Big" grandkids are off to college, our NJ grandkids are back to middle school / high school, and Miss Taylor had her first day of Kindergarten last Wednesday! 

Miss Sophie won't be far behind ... but for now it's Play Doh!

Yep -- it's Autumn.

After we finished up our stay in Lubec a few weeks ago we stopped for one night near Bar Harbor on our way home. Normally we don't go anywhere near Bar Harbor this time of year due to all the tourists but I had an opportunity to visit with an old high school friend so we figured we would find out just how crazy Bar Harbor could get in the middle of tourist season. Well lemme tell you -- downtown Bar Harbor on a beautiful summer evening in August looks like walking the "strip" in Vegas! People everywhere -- people on the sidewalks, people waiting in line to get in a restaurant, people checking out the Gee Gaws in every shop. Well -- maybe I exaggerated a little -- these people where dressed for the most part so I guess it wasn't really like the "strip" ... but you know what I mean!

After we finished up our short trip to northern Maine I got to work waxing WTT. Waxing that modern clear coated full body paint was easier than the fiberglass finish of our first Winne - but it was still a long way around the coach and took me a full four days. But then again - my work days are shorter than they used to be!

Autumn also means motorcycle show time in New England. Yesterday I attended the annual Vintage Motorcycle Show at the Owl's Head Transportation Museum up near Thomaston, Maine. I took the 1965 Yamaha YA6 and the 1974 Honda CB350F up to the show on a trailer to show off. It was a beautiful day, got to see lots of neat old bikes and visit with some interesting folks ... doesn't get much better than that!

Actually -- it should be even better today! Today looks to also be a beautiful day and it is Miss Taylor's 5th birthday! Cake, ice cream, and visits with the Maine Evringhams/Johansens ... sounds like more fun to me!

Since it's motorcycle show month, and since WTT is pretty much ready to roll, I figure we might as well combine the two. The annual "Rice-O-Rama" show is next Sunday in Spencer, Massachusetts so I think Peggy and I are going to take WTT for a short trip. "Rice-O-Rama" is the politically incorrect title for the annual Japanese Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet. I won't be taking the bikes down - but you never know what treasure might turn up at the swap meet.

We plan on heading down on Friday and staying at the Minuteman Campground near Littleton, MA. Since Littleton is not far from Concord and Lexington, MA -- we hope to get in a little Revolutionary War sightseeing as well.

SO -- just because summer is pretty much over here in Maine it doesn't mean that these Maineiacs won't be in Motion.

And speaking of getting Maineiacs in Motion -- it's time to start planning the 2017 Winter Get-A-Way. Right now we are hoping to leave in mid-January returning around the first of April. Destinations? Yet to be determined. But we never did make it to Florida last year -- so maybe we start with that idea!

Sunsets

Although we have owned a motorhome for over 12 years now, and have visited lots of different places, we haven't RV'd much in Maine. We camped in several places in Maine in our pop-up camper back when we did a fair bit of family camping, but we haven't seen much of Maine through the windshield of our motorhomes. We decided to change that a bit by loading up WTT and heading out for a Maine road trip yesterday.

Since we were on Day 1 of our short road trip we decided to start our day with a trip to the Kopper Kettle in town for a nice breakfast before finishing our loading and getting on the road at a leisurely 10 AM.

Our destination for yesterday was the easternmost point in the USA - Lubec, Maine. You can find Lubec by traveling north and east in Maine until right before the sign that says "Welcome To Canada." We started off heading north on I-295 and then I-95 until we reached Bangor - then we took an easterly heading towards Ellsworth before heading north again along Route 1 and 1A until right before we saw that aforementioned sign where we turned off and settled in here at Sunset Point RV Park - the Easternmost Campground in the USA.

Sunset Point is a very small campground with only about 20ish spots for RVs and another 10 or so tent sites -- but the setting is gorgeous. The campground sits on a point of land just south of Lubec on the edge of Johnson Bay -- facing west -- well placed for some beautiful views of the bay and some gorgeous sunsets.

This was our first drive of any significant distance since returning home from our 2016 winter trip and since getting our initial warranty repair items taken care of over the past few months. I am really happy to report that WTT ran great, all systems worked the way they were supposed to, and we arrived safe and sound here in Lubec after about 5 hours and 210 or so miles. The first 100 miles were along the interstate and were very smooth. The second hundred miles were along several of Maine's scenic byways offering plenty of opportunities to test WTT's air ride suspension.

This was also my first opportunity to drive WTT since modifying the braking system on our towed car (AKA "Toad"). You may recall that when we purchased WTT, I was somewhat concerned that since our Engine Exhaust Brake actuated WTT's brake lights - and since our Toad's braking system uses that brake light signal to actuate it's braking system - it would cause our Toad's brakes to operate much more frequently than necessary. My experience over the first 4,000 or so miles showed that indeed - the car brakes came on more than I liked. While doing a bit of research on this problem I came across what I thought was an elegant solution.

WTT's chassis builder (Freightliner) installs wiring and a connector under the dash meant for use with an aftermarket brake controller to actuate electric trailer brakes when towing a large trailer. After finding the connector under the dash I was able to confirm that the brake actuation signal meant for the brake controller used only the brake pedal for an input (and not the Engine Exhaust Brake) -- so there was my solution. 

Step 1 was to install a wire jumper in that connector that would send that brake pedal input signal to the wire meant for the brake controller output. By doing this I would have a brake pedal signal sent all the way back to the 7 pin trailer towing connector on the back of WTT.

The next step required a minor bit of re-wiring to our towed car. My plan was to take that brake actuation signal from WTT's trailer connection and send it to the actuation inputs on the Toad's brake controller (Invisibrake by Roadmaster). I added a wire from the Toad's towing connector and ran it to the brake controller inputs. Now the car brakes would only actuate when that signal from WTT's brake pedal was activated (not from the brake lights).

I know it sounds complicated - but it was really pretty simple. Now things work the way I want them to:

When the motorhome is slowing down - either by actuation of the Engine Exhaust Brake or the regular Service Brakes - the motorhome brake lights and the towed car brake lights come on to warn following drivers. However, the car supplemental brake system only actuates when the motorhome Service Brakes are applied.

See - I am easy to please. Just make it work the way I want it -- and I'm happy!

We spent today playing lazy, relaxing tourist. After a late awakening (at least for me), we took our time getting ready to face the day, took a stroll around the RV Park,  

and then finally decided to venture out for some lunch around 1 PM. We drove into quaint downtown Lubec and found Frank's Restaurant overlooking the harbor and international bridge leading to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. After an OK seafood lunch (although the crab stew was extremely good!!) we took a side trip to West Quoddy Head State Park on our way back. This location is the easternmost point of land in the US and has been home to a lighthouse since 1808. The present red and white stripped tower has been there since 1858.

We hope to do a bit more sightseeing tomorrow -- in spite of the forecast rain.

Until then -- here's some more sunset shots ... from Sunset Point.

The Mother of Invention

Since WTT made it home a couple of weeks ago with repairs complete, and since it is the middle of summer in Maine, I figured it was time to start getting her ready for winter. 

Getting our motorhome ready for winter means two things ... get the rig ready for winter storage (we may head south during the winter but we definitely don't leave before freezing weather arrives) and ... get the rig ready for winter travel.

When designing the Forza model line the Winnebago folks did no favors to us that live in the cold weather zones and need to prepare our equipment for a subfreezing climate. The fresh water system standard equipment does not allow for adding RV antifreeze and no provision is provided for bypassing the hot water heater. The operations manual does provide instructions for blowing out the fresh water lines with air but I've never held much faith that doing this will eliminate all pockets of water. Since our previous Winne was built with a hot water heater bypass, a method to add antifreeze, and a method to isolate and drain the line going to the refrigerator ice maker - I figured these features would be a good addition for our new Forza.

Step 1 was to add a "3-way" diversion valve on the suction side of the fresh water pump. This valve allows the pump to take supply from the on-board fresh water tank under normal circumstances or to draw RV antifreeze from a jug to fill the fresh water system when preparing for winter storage. I used a 1/2" "Flair-it" valve purchased via Amazon for about $10. Installation took all of 15 minutes. Simply cut the flexible hose on the supply side of the pump with a knife, slide the threaded connectors supplied with the valve over the hose ends, push the hose onto the barbed ends of the valve, and tighten the threaded connectors by hand. Add a flexible piece of tubing to the third barbed connection end in the same manner and you now have an antifreeze suction hose when it's time to winterize.

Now that we have a way to add the antifreeze - we need to deal with that 10 gallon hot water heater. I suppose you could just add an additional 10 gallons of antifreeze when filling the system but that is rather expensive and wasteful. Thanks to some folks who had Winnebago add a hot water heater bypass feature to their Forza/Solei, and for their posting of pictures on various internet sites, I was able to copy the Winnebago post-manufacture solution. On my Forza (34T) the hot water heater is on the driver's side at the rear of the coach. The cold water supply line and hot water return line are routed through a boxed-in area under the bed -- offering a "sorta" convenient place to install the bypass system consisting of another 1/2" 3-way valve and 1/2" Tee. 

Installation was a bit more difficult because you have to work in a somewhat cramped space -- but still not all that hard. Cut the 1/2" PEX supply and return lines at about the same place. Install the 3-way valve on the cold water supply line (I had to cut out about a 2 " section of the supply line to have enough space to install the valve). Install a stub section of 1/2" PEX coming off the third port on the 3-way valve and connect this to the middle port of the 1/2" Tee. Finish up the installation by connecting the previously cut sections of hot water return line to the Tee. When it's time to add antifreeze - the 3-way valve is operated to divert the antifreeze away from the hot water heater supply and over to the return line. A check valve in the return line at the water heater prevents antifreeze from entering the hot water heater from the return line. This part of the project took about an hour and cost about $15.

Now on to the ice maker.

When winterizing, some folks will operate the ice maker and allow RV antifreeze to enter the ice trays to protect the system from freezing. This will work and I've done it before on our previous motorhome (on accident). When un-winterizing you will need to throw away the first few batches of ice to get rid of the "pink stuff." I prefer to isolate the ice maker from the fresh water system and blow out the refrigerator ice maker supply line with air. The folks at Winnebago did supply a 1/8" drain line on the ice maker supply line but not an isolation valve. One trip to Home Depot to obtain a 1/8" brass valve with compression fittings ($10), about 15 minutes of work and now we can isolate the ice maker.

With cold weather storage modifications out of the way it was time to move on to cold weather travel issues.

On our previous motorhome the "wet bay" (area where the fresh water and waste water connections are located) was not heated by the on-board heating systems. Fresh water supply is usually not a problem as long as we have sufficient water in the fresh water tank since that area is heated - and we do carry a heated fresh water supply hose for the times when that might be handy - but we have had problems in the past with frozen waste water valves. Our solution in the past was to place a small (200 Watt) electric cube heater in the wet bay and connect to a power source by an extension cord. The wet bay in our new Forza is open to the heated area of the basement so I suspect we will not have a similar problem. However, just to be ready in case we do -- I installed a power outlet in the wet bay to make it easier to power a heater or anything else for that matter. Fortunately, Winnebago supplied a 120 Volt outlet on the opposite side of the basement area that was easy to tap into and even had a correct size opening for an outlet in the wet bay. 

If providing heat to the wet bay was a good idea on Winnebago's part, then why did they decide to provide a 4 inch diameter hole in the floor to run a 5/8" or maybe 3/4" diameter hose? Not only did you just create a huge area for heat loss - you made it real easy for just about any critter to come visit! Once again, my old Winnebago provided a sliding cover for this opening that would seal up around the hose -- not so on the "new and improved" model. So once again - a simple and easy solution was needed. This is one of those times when not throwing something away came in handy. I happen to have a piece of polyethylene foam laying around that was easy to shape to fit the 4 inch hole -- and it already had a 3/4 inch hole in it! Once again -- necessity is the mother of invention.

So ---- now that I'm ready for winter .... I think we will do some summer camping. Time to head downeast.